Iranian court rejects bid to reopen Kazemi case

The Globe and Mail: The family of slain Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi suffered a setback in a Tehran appeals court yesterday when the presiding judge rejected their lawyers’ move to reopen the case. Led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human-rights activist Shirin Ebadi, the lawyers for Ms. Kazemi’s family had argued that the 54-year-old Montreal resident was murdered while in custody and that details of her brutal death were covered up. The Globe and Mail

By TU THANH HA AND MICHAEL DEN TANDT

Page A6

MONTREAL AND OTTAWA – The family of slain Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi suffered a setback in a Tehran appeals court yesterday when the presiding judge rejected their lawyers’ move to reopen the case.

Led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human-rights activist Shirin Ebadi, the lawyers for Ms. Kazemi’s family had argued that the 54-year-old Montreal resident was murdered while in custody and that details of her brutal death were covered up.

But the appellate court, presided over by a magistrate only identified as “Judge Alizadeh,” rejected the allegation, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported yesterday.

Judge Alizadeh said a lower court had already ruled Ms. Kazemi’s death unintentional.

“This dismissal illustrates once again that the Iranian justice system has neither the capacity nor the will to confront the perpetrators of the brutal murder of Zahra Kazemi,” said Marie-Christine Lilkoff, a spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs Canada.

“Iran has lost a concrete opportunity to show that it treats these problems with appropriate seriousness.” No foreign journalists or diplomats were allowed inside the courtroom despite earlier assurances from Iranian officials that the proceedings would be open to the public.

Talking to reporters after the hearing, which lasted nearly five hours, Ms. Ebadi raised the prospect of taking the case to an international court.

“If justice is not served in Iran, I will appeal to international courts and human-rights organizations,” she told Reuters.

With the appeals court’s rejection of the case, Ms. Ebadi has only two recourses left under the Iranian judicial system, Ali Reza Nourizadeh, an exiled Iranian journalist and dissident, said in an interview from Britain.

She could attempt to bring the case to the country’s supreme court or request the intervention of the head of the Iranian judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Sharoudi, a conservative cleric.

Either way, it is unlikely she would be successful, he said.

“They have enough headaches, they aren’t going to let this case continue,” he predicted.

Ms. Kazemi died on July 10, 2003. She was arrested on June 23 as she was taking photos of protesters outside Evin prison in northern Tehran.